plinth

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A block or slab on which a pedestal, column, or statue is placed.

n. The base block at the intersection of the baseboard and the vertical trim around an opening.

n. A continuous course of stones supporting a wall. Also called plinth course.

n. A square base, as for a vase.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A block or slab upon which a column, pedestal, or statue is based.

n. The bottom course of stones or bricks supporting a wall.

n. A base or pedestal beneath a cabinet.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. In classical architecture, a vertically faced member immediately below the circular base of a column; also, the lowest member of a pedestal; hence, in general, the lowest member of a base; a sub-base; a block upon which the moldings of an architrave or trim are stopped at the bottom. See Illust. of column.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. In architecture, the flat square table or slab under the molding of the base of a Roman or Renaissance column, of which it constitutes the foundation, and the bottom of the order; also, an abacus; also, a square molding or table at the base of any architectural part or member, or of a pedestal, etc. See phrases below, and cuts under base, column, and capital.

n. A gymnastic apparatus, a vaulting-box, consisting of several woodensections placed on top of one another, so as to make possible variations in height.

n. An apparatus used in therapeutic gymnastics on which the patient sits or lies.

Eventually we reach our actual destination, a field where a group of 12 women are carrying baskets filled with earth and mud from the edge of a field to a destroyed homestead where a family is using the mud to rebuild the foundation - the "plinth" - of their home.

But those nearer (Ralph, and George, and Rose among them) who could see not only the whole figure, but the plinth and the pedestal upon which it stood, saw that the inscription on the plinth was the same as that which had been reported as upon the first image, the one set up in the Temple at

The plinth, which is very massive, rises even higher above that of the west front here than it does there, and the buttresses project over 8 feet at the base and are of three stages, and the gables on these have their sides straight, their eaves everywhere continued to the wall, and their corners enriched with heads, but on the second stage only.

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Plinth sighting!It looked like a bathysphere: a ball of riveted metal, two meters in diameter, with a single porthole on one side. It stood on a low plinth, braced by struts. Cables were plugged into it all over its surface. -- The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding

I always keep a piece of chalk in my backpack in case of situations just like this one. Didn't occur to me to stand on; I'd just got in on the overnight train and in fact spent the next hour asleep on the bench visible.

I have just encountered this word as a substitute for “template” (almost) or perhaps foundation—but in the technological sense. For instance, building a complex piece of software on such a lowly plinth.

"Devonport's controversial 'Spirit of the Sea' statue will be officially launched tomorrow, but the artist who created it says he is unlikely to be there. Aden McLeod formerly of Devonport and now living in North Queensland, says he was invited, but he is too traumatised by his experience to attend. The five-metre nude bronze statue was installed on its plinth at the mouth of the Mersey River yesterday."- Statue divides a city, abc.net.au, 28 Feb 2009.